Amateur Hour: Presidential Character and the Question of Leadership. By Lara M.BrownNew York, NY: Routledge, 2021. 235 pp.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mel Laracey
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Character

Presidential Character Revisited

1997 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 791-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lyons
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Character

Assessing Presidential Character

1974 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander L. George
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Severe Mental Illness ◽  
Public Office ◽  
Successful Career ◽  
Shared Beliefs ◽  
Presidential Character

Shortly after James Forrestal resigned as Secretary of Defense in late March 1949, the nation was shocked to learn that he was under treatment for a severe mental illness. Within a few months Forrestal committed suicide. This tragic occurrence, coming after Forrestal's highly successful career in government, directly challenged the long-standing mental-health mythology prevalent in Washington. The essence of the myth, as noted by Albert Deutsch at the time, was the belief that “no Very Important Person, under any circumstances, can possibly suffer from a psychosis.” The denial of this possibility in official Washington was of a piece with widely shared beliefs that to suffer a mental illness was a disgrace that automatically and permanently rendered one unfit for public office.

Prime Ministerial Character: An Alternative View

1976 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.E. Esberey
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Alternative Interpretation ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Presidential Character

The analysis of political leadership is an enterprise often handicapped by the lack of an adequate conceptual framework. Mr Courtney has selected James Barber's model of presidential character as a means of overcoming this problem and has presented an interesting examination of Mackenzie King's political leadership based on this approach. There are, however, a number of aspects both of the Barber model and of Mackenzie King's leadership that Courtney has been unable to develop. It is proposed in this brief rejoinder to discuss some of these issues and to indicate the main lines of an alternative interpretation of Mr King's character.

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